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A
classic eastern 180° panorama rises in simple elegance
and graces the darkening day’s end. The appearance of
the Earth shadow, countertwilight arch and bright
reflection signals the start of a clear night’s work at
the South African Astronomical Observatory near
Sutherland, South Africa on May 30, 2006. In
astronomical terms, the countertwilight arch is referred
to as the Belt of Venus. Willie Koorts.
Light Gets the
Bends: Showtime Optics for Sky
Observers
A sky observer’s primer for a better
 understanding
of the phenomena seen in our skies
Our yellow star couches in a mantle of clouds and bathes
it red over the Pyrenees
Mountains of Spain. A minute portion of the Sun’s total
output is responsible for the
incredible variety of colors, streaks, patterns and
optical effects as it penetrates
the Earth’s atmosphere in
just
a few millionths of a second. Ramon Balina Cabrè.
Light Behaviors
Angular Measurements in the Sky
Daily
Pageantry: Scenery Production,
The
Twilight Show,
and the Supporting Cast
The ever-changing colors of the sky, the east and west
views of the
twice-
daily
twilight show, and
the noteworthy
contributions of clouds to the
scenic
skyscape
The opening procession of the
Sun’s daily
pageant decorates dawn
in Maui,
Hawaii
with its
signature colors. Rob Ratkowski.
The Twilight Show
Many-Splendored Rings:
Rainbows,
Coronas, and Glories
A fascinating tableau of watercolored rings amid
changing and capricious weather
A primary rainbow with several supernumerary arcs and a
reverse-spectrum
secondary
bow paints the sky opposite the sunset in Redmond,
Washington on
July 8,
2005.
A high concentration of uniformly-sized raindrops
produce the bright
bands
and
strong supernumerary bows while the concentration of
light within the
primary bow
reveals the extent of is scattering from the low Sun on
the distant
clouds.
Aaron
Becker.
Locating Water Droplet Rings
Glory
Crowning
Radiances:
Halos, Arcs, and Company
Crystal geometry, radiant crownpieces to a
spectacular sky
Sunlight spangles the south polar sky in a fascinating
geometric
exhibition on January
11, 1999.
Ice crystal plates and columns
redirect
light from the 22° elevation of the
Sun into a
myriad of
luminous halos, arcs, circles, spots, and sky-tracers.
The
extremely
rare, hour-long, world-record display exhibited
twenty-two different
halo
forms simultaneously. Seen in this view, from top to
bottom:
circumzenithal arc,
supralateral arc, concave parry arc, upper
tangent
arcs, 22° halo, parhelic circle,
parhelia,
and infralateral arcs.
Jarmo Moilanen.
Ice Crystal Geometry
Apparitions, Specters, and
Phantasmagoria:
Mirages and Refractive Deeds
Bizarre and perverted phantasmagorical fabrications,
rendered in
glorious
natural Technicolor by the ordinary action of visible
light with air
The 50 m tall lighthouse of the Isokari Islands in the
Baltic Sea shrinks and
stretches
with
the weather conditions, as seen from 14 km distant. As
an
undistorted
reference,
the center image displays its three red and three white
bands of equal
height.
Look closely to find the image in which seven red bands
appear.
Pekka
Parviainen.
Mirage vs. Illusion
Fire in
the Sky:
Lightning and Other
Discharges
 The boldly erratic and tantalizingly beautiful electric
light show
Lightning
stings the air and zaps the ground as the summer storm
menaces Tucson,
Arizona.
As the Sun retreats below the horizon, a peacefully
striated twilight settles
even as
its energy charges the advancing storm. Warren
Faidley
Red Sprites, Blue
Jets, ELVES, and Trolls
Glorious
Incandescence:
Polar Auroras and Airglow
Twisting and undulating wisps,
bands, streaks, and curtains of spirited spectacle
Nitrogen and oxygen in the upper atmosphere glow purple
and green on the
evening of
July 24, 2004 at Little Wall Lake in central Iowa, and
are caught
in the
act by a tripod-mounted Canon Digital Rebel with a
15-second
exposure.
Stan Richard
Multicolored Full
Auroral Corona |
